George W. Sim died Sunday at the age of 101, says an obituary that appeared in this newspaper on Tuesday.

His death comes just over a month after he attended the commemorative ceremony that marked the explosion’s 95th anniversary. He and fellow survivors Kathleen MacDonald and Mary Murphy were in Halifax’s Needham Park when the park’s bells ran out to mark the moment of the blast — 9:04 a.m.

On Dec. 6, 1917, the French munitions ship Mont-Blanc collided with the Imo, a Nor­wegian vessel, at the entrance to the Narrows. A resulting fire ignited chemicals aboard the Mont-Blanc. More than 2,000 people died in the blast or later as a result of it.

In December 2011, Sim and Murphy talked to students after the remembrance service. He told them: “Remember this day."

The Halifax man, who was six when the explosion oc­curred, also said he was pleased the youngsters had come.

“It’s nice to see all you chil­dren here," Sim told them.

Sim was a “treasured surviv­or" of the historic event, said Blair Beed, the author of 1917 Halifax Explosion and American Response, which was published in 1999.

In an interview Tuesday, Beed said Sim made a great effort to attend commemorative services.

“He . . . kept coming to events, almost every one, in the bitterest cold ever," said the historian. “He remembered. He still wanted to be there. He wanted to make that remem­brance of the people lost and the people who survived."

On the morning of the massive blast, Sim was home on Artz Street.

“I was eating my breakfast and all the windows blew in," he told a reporter for this newspaper last year.

“My mother was thrown in the corner with the stove on top of her and my oldest brother took it off of her."

His father took the family to the north side of Citadel Hill to protect them, Sim said.

After it appeared the danger had passed, they came home to discover their grandmother there. Her Russell Street home had been destroyed, Sim said.

He said he could still re­member snow falling that night and the bad storm that moved in to Halifax the next day.

Beed lauded Sim, and many other survivors, for telling their stories and helping “re­energize" the movement to commemorate the Halifax Ex­plosion.

“They gave us more than we gave them," Beed remarked. “I met him back when we did the 75th anniversary of the explosion. The mayor had a tea for survivors."

Beed’s own grandmother survived the explosion. She was 16 when it happened.

Sim’s obituary said he worked for the Department of National Defence for 35 years.

A funeral service will be held Thursday at Cruikshank’s Halifax Funeral Home on Windsor Street in Halifax.